Venus and Moon, March 21 & 22, 2015

March 23, 2015 — Jeffrey L. Hunt

Brilliant Venus and the moon appeared near each other during the past two evenings. On March 21, the crescent moon appeared about 12 degrees below the planet. Notice that the night portion of the moon is illuminated. Sunlight reflected from our planet gently illuminated the lunar night. From the moon, Earth appeared nearly full. In the same way the full moon illuminates terrestrial features when it is full, our planet illuminates the night portion of the moon when the moon appears near the crescent phases. This effect is known as “Earthshine.”

On the next evening the moon appeared about 4 degrees to the left of Venus. In the overexposed image, notice the Earthshine.